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Monday, 29 December 2014

Modified Stage-Gate: A Conceptual Model of Virtual Product Development Process

University
of Malaya (UM) - Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture,
Faculty of Engineering; University of Malaya (UM) - Research Support
Unit, Centre of Research Services, Institute of Research Management and
Monitoring (IPPP)

In today’s dynamic marketplace, manufacturing
companies are under strong pressure to introduce new products for
long-term survival with their competitors. Nevertheless, every company
cannot cope up progressively or immediately with the market requirements
due to knowledge dynamics being experienced in the competitive milieu.
Increased competition and reduced product life cycles put force upon
companies to develop new products faster. In response to these pressing
needs, there should be some new approach compatible in flexible
circumstances. This paper presents a solution based on the popular
Stage-Gate system, which is closely linked with virtual team approach.
Virtual teams can provide a platform to advance the knowledge-base in a
company and thus to reduce time-to-market. This article introduces
conceptual product development architecture under a virtual team
umbrella. The paper describes all the major aspects of new product
development (NPD), NPD process and its relationship with virtual teams,
Stage-Gate system finally presents a modified Stage-Gate system to cope
up with the changing needs. It also provides the guidelines for the
successful implementation of virtual teams in new product development.

Abstract

Management
education has come a long way since Sir Isaac Pitman initiated the
first correspondence course in the early 1840s. Today the demands from a
globalized economy are causing a sea change in the way business
education is being delivered. The traditional one-size-fits-all
educational approach of the past is being replaced with a customized and
flexible learning paradigm that focuses on student outcomes and
performance. Management education collaboration networks can assist in
this transformation. A primary function of a collaboration network is to
provide the management education community with access to curriculum
innovation, databases, cloud computing resources, mobile learning
technologies and implementation strategies. The network design should be
based on stakeholder attitudes, new learning technologies,
globalization, changing demographics and sustainability. The purpose of
this article is to highlight the results of a global survey on
collaboration networks and to outline the role of cloud-based
collaboration in the future of business education.

Introduction

Traditional
business schools are under increased pressure to respond to the growing
demands from businesses, governments, and students or lose market share
to alternative providers of business education (e.g., for profit
institutions, MOOCs). Some of the factors driving this shift include
globalization, student demographics, sustainability and enabling
technology (Ain, 2010; Martin, 2011; Rusinko, 2010):

Many
domains of business will require new approaches that collectively
amount to a new model for business practice. Articulating and mastering
these new models will require a significant shift in management
education. The imperatives of 1) viewing planning as learning and
reinvention rather than as prediction or control, 2) framing complex
business problems through multiple disciplinary lenses, and 3)
recognizing the importance of intuition and seasoned judgment, are just
some of the elements that a new paradigm of business education needs to
include (Schoemaker, 2008).

To meet these ongoing
challenges the management education community is engaged in a
significant overhaul of curricula, delivery modalities and focus
(Bruner, 2011; Doh, 2010; Kleiman, 2007; Mamum, 2009).

This
reformation builds on the same networking and computing systems that
revolutionized global commerce in the 1990s and 2000s. Integrating the
Internet with the new learning technologies now makes it possible for
schools of business to offer a variety of customized programs on a
global basis. Two critical tasks in this process are the development of
high quality curricula and content that can be delivered in a reliable
manner and that will be accepted by students (Kao, 2011). Learning
Management Systems (LMS) can provide the student with a customized
curriculum delivered at a convenient time and place (Dykman, 2008; Ping,
2008; Yoon, 2010):

When students are learning online,
there are multiple opportunities to exploit the power of technology for
formative assessment. The same technology that supports learning
activities gathers data in the course of learning that can be used for
assessment. As students work, the system can capture their inputs and
collect evidence of their problem-solving sequences (Bienkowski, 2012).

The search can be time consuming and sometimes tedious task.
How can make it easier? How do deal with situations such as:

“I
just join as new postgraduate students and I am not sure how doing a
literature search, What is a literature review?, Where do I begin in
conducting a literature review?”

“I
have been in research for some time now but I spend a lot of time to
get the articles I want., What are the best materials to include in my
review and how do I locate them?, Is it worth my time to search the
Internet for the literature?”

“I am sure I have downloaded the article, but I am not able to find it”

“I wanted to write a new paper, how can I manage the references in the shortest possible time?”

“I
have many references, some of my old papers, and some of my current
research. Sometimes, they are so many that I can’t recall where I have
kept them in my folders!”

……..

“I
have written an article and I am not able to find a proper Journal,
Are there any shortcuts for identifying a journal for submission?”

"I want to increase the citation of my papers, how do I do?"

We need an effective search strategy can
save hours of wasted research time and provide a clear direction for
your research. The benefits of attending this workshop are numerous and
include learning how to change the direction of searching to discover
and how to use more efficient the tools that are available through the
Net.“Research Tools”enable researchers to collect, organize, analyze, visualize, mobilize and create creative outputs. The benefits from using “Research Tools”can
be summarized as helping researchers keep up to date with current
developments in their chosen field, up to date information on what is
regarding as interesting and stimulating by recognised professors, the
ability to choose high-quality relevant papers related to the
researchers field, evaluating other researcher and journals, publishing
in appropriate journals, increased visibility for publications and
access to important writing tools for editing, paraphrasing and
summarizing.Writing your thesis or academic paper can be daunting
enough but, with the use of the “Research Tools”what seemed virtually impossible will become true to any researcher.

Sharing research results is both an obligation and an
opportunity. Since there are many considerations when a study
concludes, Dr. Nader provided several“Research Tools”
to help with the publication process and ideas for dissemination
beyond publishing in a research journal. Publishing a high quality paper
in scientific journals is only the mid point towards receiving
citation in the future. The balance of the journey is completed by
advertising and disseminating the publications. Familiarity with the
tools allows the researchers to increase their h-index in a short time.
H-index shows the academicians influence in the specified field of
research. Therefore, an academician with a higher level of h-index is
deemed to have publications of higher quality resulting in higher
citations.

With the use of “Research Tools”
the whole painstaking process of your research will be simplified and
made easy, leaving you free to use your time for discovering.

Objective

The concept of the workshop is to make best use of the "Research Tools"
to enable the researcher to find, evaluate, write and disseminate
publications.The workshop seeks to serve the following objectives:

To help students who seek to reduce the search time by expanding the knowledge of researchers to more effectively use the "tools" that are available through the Net.*

To search for a set of suitable titles/keywords.

To use and extractliterature correctly and keep updated upon previous research.

To enable the researcher write their thesis or article in the most competent way

To choose an appropriate journal for publishing theresearch output

To increase the number of publications

To network with peer researchers

To promote their publication for further citation.

To raise the chance of publications getting cited

* For more information on this workshop, see the Research Tools web page.

These two-dayworkshop, aim to help senior and junior
researchers along with supervisors in order to reduce research time by
developing researcher knowledge to use more effectively the “Tools”
which are available through the net. “Research Tools”
is the skill to understand and use information technology tools to
carry out research, including the use of discipline-related software and
online resources.

The online “Research Tools”
box is included over 700 tools. However, the speaker tries to
introduce all necessary tools to senior and junior researchers in a
simple and applicable way.

Who should attend?

The workshopis aimed at senior and junior researchers along
with supervisors, postgraduate students, fresh academics and
researchers who have started his/her research and would like to increase
the effectiveness of the research, publish papers and finally increase
their papers’ visibility and number of citations.The e-skills learned
from the workshop are useful across various research disciplinesand
research institutions.Researcher, with the use of “Research Tools”
will be able to cut down on the time previously sent on searching
through material and in writing their research papers.Participants
should have the requisite computer skills prior to taking the workshop.

Tentative program

DAY 1

Time

Activity

8:30am

Registration

9:00am

Introduce “Research Tools” Box

9:15am

Developing a search strategy,

9:30am

Finding keywordand proper articles,

10:30am

Tea break 1

11:00am

Evaluate a paper/journal quality

12:30pm

Lunch break

2:00pm

Keeping up-to-date (Alert system),

2:30pm

Mind mapping tools

2:45pm

The paraphrasing & editing tool

3:30pm

Tea break 2

4:00pm

Avoid plagiarism

5:00pm

Q&A

DAY 2

Time

Activity

9:00am

Indexing desktop search tooland write an academic paragraph

10:30am

Tea break 1

11:00am

Organize the references (Reference management tools)

11:30am

The impact factor-Journal ranking,

11:45am

Types of publications

12:15pm

Getting published and Target suitable journal

12:30pm

Lunch break

2:00pm

Times Higher Education World University Ranking system

2:30pm

Definition ofh-index and how to measure it?

2:45pm

Selecting keywords, Optimize Title/Abstract

3:00pm

Targeted advertising and Copyright issue

3:30pm

Tea break 2

4:00pm

Online CV

4:15pm

Select the best paper repository and Document Publishing,

4:30pm

Networking and Trace published article citation,

5:00pm

Q&A and closing

Nader Ale Ebrahim
is currently working as a research fellow with the Research Support
Unit, Centre of Research Services, Institute of Research Management
and Monitoring (IPPP), University of Malaya. Nader holds a PhD
degree in Technology Management from Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya.
He has over 19 years of experience in the field of technology
management and new product development in different companies. His
current research interest focuses on E-skills, Research Tools, Bibliometrics and managing virtual NPD teams in SMEs’ R&D centers.

He was the winner of Refer-a-Colleague Competition and
has received prizes from renowned establishments such as Thomson
Reuters. Nader is well-known as the founder of “Research Tools” Box and the developer of “Publication Marketing Tools”.

Registration fees cover refreshments and lunch. All fees must be fully paid before commencement of the course. Otherwise,
participants will not be allowed to enter the lecture hall.
Reservation/booking by intending participants should be made with
payment as soon as possible. We accept payment via Local Order (LO).
However, the price should be normal price and the LO must be sent prior
to the event.

If a place is reserved and the intended participant failed to
attend the course on the date of the event, the fee is to be settled
in full. Fees paid are non-refundable. However, substitution of
participant(s) will be permitted at the discretion of the organizer. In
view of the limited places available, intending participants are
advised to send their registration with the payment made as early as
possible to avoid disappointment.

The organizer reserves the right to alter or change the
programme due to unforeseen circumstances. Every effort will be made to
inform the registered participants of any changes. The organizer will
not be responsible for the arrangement of participant's transportation
and accommodation should there be any changes for the date of the
workshop. The participant is responsible to check the MPWS official
website from time to time for any changes, or contact the organizer
directly.

Completed registration form accompanied by evidence of payment slip should reach the organizer not later than 3 working days before the commencement of the course.

If you require further details or clarifications, kindly contact the organizer

* You need to put the email mpws.training@gmail.com as the 3rd party email when making payment through CIMB Clicks / Maybank2u / BankIslam.biz and others.

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record of transaction e.g. receipt for ATM Transfer / Cash Deposit /
Cheque Deposit or print screen / PDF for Online Transaction as an
evidence of payment during the registration.

Make sure you fill in the verification of your payment. You need to provide your booking details and proof of payment for us to track your registration and payment.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

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regarding your inquiry/request for quotation if you insert you Yahoo email in the Email Address column below. Here are the alternatives that you can do to overcome the problem and ensure the smoothness of the process:

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Monday, 8 December 2014

Top 3 Journal Selectors for PhD Students

Get Your Research Published in The Best Matching Journals
We understand that finding a suitable journal might be a tough phase
for most of us to locate and publish. Let’s try searching for the topic
of ourarticle in a relevant library database to see where related
articles in our field have been published.

Most of us will use Scopus or ISI, for directions on how to find
journals to publish. In addition, we recommend you may also consider
using the following tools:

Enter your abstract or article description in the Journal Selector to
find journals that publish in related areas. Currently matching to over
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The Edanz journal selector uses cutting-edge semantic technology to
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that publish in related areas. You can then refine your results based on
the factors that matter to you, like publication frequency, Impact
Factor or publishing model, including open access.

Ale Ebrahim, Nader; Ahmed, Shamsuddin and
Taha, Zahari (2009): Envisages of New Product Developments in Small and
Medium Enterprises through Virtual Team. Published in: Proceedings of
the 2010 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and
Operations Management Dhaka, Bangladesh (09. January 2010): pp. 1-10.

Shafia, Mohammad Ali; Ale Ebrahim, Nader;
Ahmed, Shamsuddin and Taha, Zahari (2009): Consideration of the virtual
team work and disabled citizens, as promising opportunity providers for
the e government infrastructure's formation. Published in: The Second
Conference on Electronic City (e-city 2009), Tehran, Iran. (25. May
2009): pp. 959-966.

Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, Reza; Ale Ebrahim,
Nader; Golnam, Arash; Vasei, M. and Ghazizadeh-Moghaddam, Ali (2006):
Analysis of Opportunities and Challenges for R&D Management and the
Role of the R&D Society for its Improvement – A Case Study in Iran.
Published in: Proceeding of the R&D Management Conf., Lake
Windermere: England (06. July 2006): pp. 1-7.

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About Me

Nader Ale Ebrahim has
a Technology Management PhD degree from the Department of Engineering
Design and Manufacture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya
(UM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He holds a Master of Science in the
mechanical engineering from University of Tehran, Iran.